Opinion: Letters to the editor

Vail, parents in mediation over avalanche that killed 13-year-old

The top entrance to the Prima Cornice run (entrance to the right of the sign and is open) at the Vail Ski Resort on March 13, 2013. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post file)

Louise Ingalls in March looks over photographs of son Taft Conlin, who died Jan. 22, 2012, in an avalanche at Vail. (Andy Cross, Denver Post file)

The parents of 13-year-old Taft Conlin, who died in an avalanche at Vail in 2012, will meet Thursday with representatives of the ski resort and a mediator in an attempt to resolve the family's wrongful death claim.

If the two sides cannot reach an agreement, the case is expected to go to trial.

A critical issue expected to be addressed during the court-ordered mediation is whether Conlin, who was skiing on Prima Cornice trail on Jan. 22, 2012, was in an open or closed area when he was overcome by an avalanche.

The top entrance to the run was closed, but the bottom gate was open, allowing skiers to go straight, left or to traverse to the right. Conlin and two friends skied to the right near a rock band and sidestepped up into an area between the two entrances. Vail has argued that Conlin "knew or reasonably should have known that the slope uphill from the gate was closed."

Nichols said he sidestepped up the rock band at 9 a.m. the morning Conlin died in the avalanche and saw "tracks of others who had gotten there before me that morning."

Vail documents show that two ski patrollers did "ski cuts" 30 to 45 minutes later, but both patrollers said in their depositions that they never saw any tracks going up from the lower gate.

Chris Jarnot, Vail's senior vice president and chief operation officer, said in a June deposition that the resort had never done an analysis of how people historically skied the Prima Cornice trail, nor had he asked for an independent or internal written review about what happened that day.

"It was my understanding that (ski patrol) would review that and draw those conclusions on their own. I didn't need to ask for it," he said.

Prayer flag to remember young skier Taft Conlin are tied to a tree along the Prima Cornice run at the Vail Ski Resort on March 13, 2013. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post file)

Rust said she didn't believe any review was done.

The Post reported two weeks ago that Rust led a state agency to believe the resort had conducted mitigation work on the Prima Cornice trail in the weeks leading up the avalanche, but the work was never done. Additionally, Nichols' affidavit and footage from Conlin's helmet camera recorded minutes before he died appear to contradict documents and testimony from the ski patrollers who said they did avalanche control on the trail that day.

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